Lust for Life (1956)

Anthony Eustrel: Tersteeg

Quotes 

• Tersteeg : Well no offense meant, but you'll be better off without him around your neck.

  Theo Van Gogh : I think I'm the best judge of that.

  Tersteeg : No, the worst. You've been pushing his paintings, and every time you do that we lose a customer. As your employer, I tell you for your own good: your love for Vincent has blinded your judgement. It's effected your work.

  Theo Van Gogh : Please don't let's wrangle again about that! I'll go on fighting for every good painter who deserves to be recognized, and Vincent is one of them. He, he could be the best of them!

  Tersteeg : What? Hmm, you're his brother. You're emotional about him.

  Theo Van Gogh : Well that has nothing to do with it.

  Tersteeg : Well what is it when you brood about him? When you agonize over his every failure? When you support him to the point of denying yourself? You save every letter he wrote as-as though it w-were Holy Scriptures. Oh come now Theo, don't you really think you've done enough for him?

  Theo Van Gogh : How much is enough... for a man who's struggling with himself the way Vincent is? Oh I know he's crude and quarrelsome and excitable, but inside that tormented head of his there's - there's something wonderful. In those letters, there's a gifted man - a tender man, and there's far more passionate beauty and strength in his work than there is in half the stuff you see in the museums today. I wonder if there will ever come a happy time for him. It seems impossible for him to have a quiet life.

  Tersteeg : The change may do him good. Maybe he'll find himself.

  Theo Van Gogh : Or will he only find more loneliness?

• Tersteeg : No offense meant, but you'll be better off without Vincent around your neck.

  Theo Van Gogh : I think I'm the best judge of that.

  Tersteeg : No, you're the worst. You've been pushing his paintings too hard, and every time you do, we lose a client. As your employer, I tell you for your own good, your love for Vincent has blinded you. It's effected your work.

  Theo Van Gogh : Don't let's argue again about that. I'll go on fighting for every good painter who deserves to be recognized, and Vincent is one of them.